Bly receives 10 years for homecoming stabbing

Fort Dodge teen pleaded guilty to charges in April

May 13, 2014

A Fort Dodge teenager was sent to prison Monday after admitting he stabbed another teen in the back at the Fort Dodge Senior High homecoming dance.

Max Bly, 18, of Fort Dodge, was sentenced to serve up to 10 years in prison.

In April, Bly pleaded guilty to felony charges of willfull injury causing bodily injury and going armed with intent. Bly admitted that he stabbed Lucas Fiala, 18, of Knierim, in the back with a pocket knife at the FDSH homecoming dance on Oct. 5, 2013.

Both Bly and Fiala were 17 at the time of the stabbing.

Although Fiala wasn't present at Monday's hearing in Webster County District Court, his mother, Denise Klocko, read a written statement she had prepared to Bly.

She described the night Fiala was stabbed.

"My son was approached by a female student who asked him to dance," Klocko said. "Because Lucas is a nice person, he said yes."

As the song was ending, Klocko said her son was stabbed in the back. He originally thought he had been punched really hard, but then he realized he was bleeding.

"Lucas had never seen or met Max Bly," she said. "He still has never seen him in person."

Fiala was a senior at Manson Northwest Webster, while Bly attended FDSH.

Klocko said her son, who lost a kidney because of the stabbing, is still recovering.

"He has worked very hard to be the person he was before he was attacked," Klocko said. "I'm so proud of him."

She added she always thinks about the night Fiala was stabbed.

"I do not go to sleep without thinking what would happen if I'd lost him," she said.

Following the recommendation of the plea agreement between prosecutors and defense, Judge William Ostlund sentenced Bly to a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Ostlund told Bly that he should consider himself fortunate.

"You should reflect and understand that this might be the luckiest day of your life," Ostlund said. "If things had ended up differently, you could be spending all of your adult life in prison."

Because Bly is young, Ostlund said this gives him the opportunity to correct his behavior for when he is released from prison. However, the judge added that will be Bly's decision.

"You need to decide today that you're never going to let something like this happen again," he said.

"This is a very, very, very serious crime," Ostlund added. "Maybe someday people will forgive you. But that's not going to happen overnight."